Jewish Columbia, Barnard students fume that professors canceled classes over post-election ‘stress’ but not after Oct. 7: ‘Very telling’
Professors at two prestigious New York universities gave fragile students rattled by Tuesday’s election results an excuse to skip class this week — enraging their Jewish peers who were offered no such grace during months of anti-Israel campus protests where participants openly praised Hamas and hurled genocidal slogans after Oct. 7.
“Columbia has a serious problem with neutrality. For an institution that claims to care so much about equality and equity, their empathy clearly doesn’t apply to the Jews,” student Eliana Goldin told The Post.
“I’m sure that if Harris won, the university would not have canceled classes.”
Lefty professors at Barnard and Columbia — two elite schools that became epicenters for disruptive and, at times, violent anti-Israel protests over the past year — sent warm-and-fuzzy emails to students encouraging them to take it easy Wednesday.
The messages were peppered with language suggesting their pupils had just been through a tragedy in the wake of former Republican President Donald Trump’s historic defeat of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris at the polls Tuesday.
“I hope you are all taking care. I recognize that processing the results of a national election can be heavy and having space to breathe and go a bit slower is vital,” wrote Barnard professor Amelia Simone Herbert to students in her “Race, Space and Urban Schools” class.
In her missive announcing class would be cut short, she obligingly offered to “remain in the room for anyone who wants to use it as a workspace or a space to reflect with others.”
Columbia adjunct professor of international and public affairs Michelle Greene — whose bio says she served on the Obama administration’s White House Council on Women and Girls — announced she was canceling class altogether because it would be “tone deaf” to continue the lesson plan.
“I have decided to cancel our class today. The current events would make it difficult to concentrate on factorial ANOVA, and although I had planned an alternative lecture on modern polling methods and their blind spots, it feels a bit tone-deaf to deliver it today,” Greene wrote.
“Be good to yourselves, check in on your friends,” she urged.
Barnard associate professor of professional practice Marjorie Folkman took the accommodating step of making her class optional on Wednesday so students could “use class time to connect with friends, loved ones, sleep for an hour to catch up [or] take a walk.”
Goldin started a thread on X in which she shared screenshots of some professors’ delicately worded emails, including one in which students were told “everyone will get participation points” after a review session was made optional following the election.
Goldin said there were “numerous” other classes canceled Wednesday, though professors didn’t directly specify their actions were tied to Trump’s runaway election victory.
“But it’s easy to read between the lines,” she said.
Some professors weren’t so quick to treat students with kid gloves, like Columbia psychology professor George Bonanno, who was adamant he wouldn’t be canceling classes.
“I honestly think that the mental health of students is way overblown. They don’t crumble as much as people think they do,” he told The Post, noting that he voted for Harris.
One CU student who wished to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisals told The Post they had one class nixed Wednesday but that it was “business as usual” the rest of the day.
“The professor sent out the memo around an hour before Pennsylvania was called for Trump by the Decision Desk,” they said.
Other students said they understood the decision to suspend classes.
“It’s important to be around people you trust when big things happen,” a female Columbia student said, admitting she was “not very focused” on her studies following the election.
‘Very telling’
But for Jewish students, many of whom feel the school inadequately responded to antisemitic protests on campus over the past year, the move to scupper classes in light of Election Day feels out of proportion.
A Columbia student wearing a silver Star of David pendant who declined to give his name ripped the prestigious institution for what he called its well-established “double standard” when it comes to Jewish students’ safety.
He said he disagreed with the university excusing students from class due to election-related stress.
“People are stressed because of homework. It’s part of life. Get used to it,” he told The Post.
“This is where the double standard comes in. You are protecting people because of stress, but when you have several Jewish students say, ‘Hey, not only are we stressed but we fear for our lives,’ not once did they cancel classes,” he said.
“Not until the fear came through and students took over the building,” he said in reference to the April 30 occupation and vandalism of Columbia’s historic Hamilton Hall.
A Columbia School of Engineering graduate student said the university’s differing approaches to students’ post-election stress revealed a lot about the university’s priorities.
“It’s very telling that some in the Columbia community feel more threatened by the results of a democratic election than by openly violent terror sympathizers threatening to burn down Western civilization,” he said.
“I, like many of my Jewish and Israeli peers, have been intimidated by both students and faculty.”
While professors Herbert, Green and Folkman did not immediately respond to a request for comment, a Columbia spokesperson told The Post Thursday it had “no reports of canceled classes.
“Columbia faculty and students were in class yesterday and our academic schedule was fully underway as usual.”
Ari Shrage, head of Columbia’s Jewish Alumni Association, said he was disappointed but not surprised by his alma mater’s double standard.
“Sadly this was predictable. There is no chance they would have canceled classes if Kamala had won, ” he said.
“Yet when Jewish students were upset about Oct 7, they didn’t cancel class. When Jews were being harassed by pro-Palestinian mobs on campus or professors moved classes to the encampments, they didn’t cancel class.
“Instead, they coddle students who pay $90,000 a year because they’re ‘sad’ that Trump won the election,” he added.
